42 a confidential tone, "The Soldatov case? " "What?" the Doctor said, not un- derstanding. "Your son-did he take part in the Estonian Spring?" "My son," T eppe said distinctly, "is a black marketeer and a drunk. And I can only stop worrying about him somewhat when he's locked up." \Ve were both silent. "At one time I worked as a medic on the islands. Then 1 served In the Estonian Army corps. I was given a high position. I don't know what we did wrong. His mother and 1 are people with a positive outlook, while our son has a negative one." "I wouldn't mind hearing his side of the story." "It's impossihle to listen to him. I say to him, 'Yura, why do you de- spise me r I've obtained everything I have through hard work. I haven't had an easy life. Now I have a high position. Why do you think they made me-a humble medic-a chief physi- cian?' And he says, 'Because all your smart colleagues were shot.' As if I shot them." The telephone rang. "Speaking," T eppe said. "Excel- Jent." Then he changed to Estonian. The con versatlon was about centi- metres and kilograms. "There we are," he told me. "A birth in the ninth ward. Four kilos two hundred grams and fifty-eight centi- metres. Want to see it?" "No, thanks. Babies all look the same." "The mother's last name is Okas. Khilia Okas. Born 1946. \i\T orks as a regulator in the Punane factory. The father's is Magabcha." "What does that mean-Magab- cha?" "That's his last name. He's from Ethiopia. He's studying at the 1\1er- chant Manne Academy." "Black? " "More like chocolate." "Listen," I said, "this is interesting We could play up internationalism The friendship of nations. Are they married? " "Of course. He writes her notes every day and signs them, 'Your carob bar.) " "Can I use your telephone?" "Help yourself." I called the office Turonok came to the phone. "Yes? Turonok speaking." "Henry Franzovich, a little boy has just been born." "What? Who is this?" "It's Dovlatov From the maternity A PAUSé BY THé W A TéR. After the days of walking alone In mountains between cities and after the nights again under dripping trees coming down I kept seeing in my mind the ocean though I knew it would not be like anything I imagined after hearing of the old man's dying and after the burial between rainy morning and rainy evening the start of a cold summer coming down the misted path alone I kept finding in my thought the ocean though I told myself step by step that it could never be at alllike that warm simple and there full of real day blue and familiar as far as the sky breathing softly beyond the pines and the white unprinted sand and I would surely not be sailing in that small boat lIke the one I wanted by a lake long ago and it is true there is this wind off the ocean so that I shiver with my collar up standing on the splashed cement of the seawall and through the foggy field glasses from before the war I can make out several channel markers leanIng and a brace of freIghters a tug with brown barges the faint domes of gas tanks on the distant shore if I did not know where I was I could be anywhere with that one sail crossing the lenses heeled over so that I can watch the gleam of the hull whIte but for one black patch recurring between waves as it passes in the cold of my hands while behind me I fee] the dusk surfacing on the swimming pool and from the far end the eyes of the muffled couple in deck chairs under the petals of frosted glass who have been coming here soon we will eat our fish and later they wIll show me every year for years in the lighted room pictures of children . hospital. You gave me an assignment." "Oh, yes. I remember." "Well, a little boy has been born. BIg, healthy. Fifty-eight centimetres. Four kilos two hundred grams. The father is Ethiopian . . ." An uneasy silence. "I don't understand," Turonok said. "An Ethiopian. He comes from Ethiopia. He's a student here," I said. "A Marxist," I added for some rea- son. "Are you drunk?" Turonok asked sharply. "How can you say that? I'm on assignment." "On assignment. When did that II I I" _ \ I I \ , \ I \ I I' I', I' ,I I I" \ I ' I, I I \ I f \ III I I I k I I \ I' I I t I \ I' I I' I \ \ I, I I, Ë ',t I\I ",I d,p I N \II "I I I [ - I, [ '/ IIJ II' I \'/1 I 1 I, r-:\ " I I) I' \ nn 'F I' " 1'111 \1,/ 1 , \ /I I I 'II: n '\1 1 f1) \AII I"" \\ \\' 1 1, I [ I I I I f I ,I" ,h I}, \ I I ,; Q , " " \I "f, \ I\ [l '/' " \ - ,I ::\1 ,., [l \ \ \ I II,/ \., \1/1' I _\ 1/1'" II ( II I 'I )',,! q' t , I \' ---- . ..:rr-m \ ! I -\V. S. l\;lERV\TIN . ever stop you? Who vomited allover the Regional Party Headquarters last December? " "Henry Franzovich, I can't tie up the line for long. A little boy has ju t been born. His father belongs to a friendly nation." "Y ou mean to say he's black?" "More like chocolate." "That IS, a Negro?" "Naturally. " "What IS there natural about this?" "Isn't an Ethiopian a human being? " "Dovlatov," Turonok said, in a voice choked with torment, "Dovla- tov, I'll fire you . . . for attempting to discredit the very best... Leave me in peace with your rotten Ethiopian! \\T ait for a normal-do you hear mer-normal human baby!" " F o " 1 O d " 1 I ." Ine, sal. was on y askIng. The line went dead. Teppe looked at me with sympathy. "It won't work," I told him.